You And Me Against The World | ✅

Chapter 81

A/N: This chapter contains a special treat for you. You can thank me later in your reviews.

Love you all!

Tobias has returned to the kitchen by now and continues working on our lunch. I pick up both pictures and walk to the island. I turn them around so that Tobias can look at them, but he is busy with something at the stove.

"Tobias, could you please look at these?" I say and he turns around. "What are you even doing? The pizza is supposed to go in the oven," I say with a chuckle. He steps aside to let me see. "Oh, I should have known, chocolate pudding," I say with a laugh.

"It's good to hear that sound again," he says leaning over the kitchen island and capturing my lips with his. He smiles brightly when we pull apart and I feel butterflies in my stomach. I'm truly blessed to have him. "So, what am I looking at?" he asks looking at the two pictures.

"Look at the pictures," I say. He does so and furrows his eyebrows in confusion.

"I don't get it. There's Steven and the guy who kidnapped you," he says the last part with clenched fists.

"Look at both pictures closely," I say. He picks both pictures up and inspects each of them. Then it seems to dawn on him.

"Can't be," he says looking at me. He returns his gaze to the pictures and then looks back at me. "It's the same person," he says still not believing it.

"I thought so too."

"Maybe it's just a coincidence," he says.

"Maybe. But we have all we need to know in those files," I say pointing at the files on the coffee table in the living room. He sets both pictures down and returns his attention to the pudding. I go back into the living room and pick up both files taking them with me into the dining room. Tobias comes in a moment later with the pizza on a large plate in one hand and a roll of paper towels in the other. He sits down on the chair in front of me and puts the pizza and the paper towels between us on the table. We each grab a file and start reading. I know we should just set them aside and enjoy our meal, but we both know we can't just ignore this. We both read the file in front of us. If there is any chance that I'm wrong and Steven Mitchell isn't Romeo than this is one hell of a coincidence. In any case, I decided to read Romeo's file to not upset Tobias even more with this. He was very helpful through all that, but I don't want to bother him with my kidnap drama any more than necessary. We spend almost an hour eating and reading through the files before we look up and to each other.

"I read that file immediately after the coroner finished with the autopsy," Tobias says about the file on Romeo. "I remember he mentioned that this guy had a broken leg about two years before he died. Am I right?" he asks and I nod. I just read it. I open the file to where this specific information is written down. Tobias opens Mitchells' file and shows me an almost identical note from the doctor who treated Steven Mitchell for that broken bone.

"There are other similarities between both files, but I think it's safe to say that this is one and the same person," I conclude.

"Did you ask mom to look for Steven?" Tobias asks.

"Yeah. I called her the moment I received the file on Mitchell. But I already talked to her. No one knows where he is. After he was made factionless he had a hard time adjusting. He didn't really make friends, instead he made a few enemies. That's why he mostly kept to himself. He wasn't part of the community and no one even noticed he was gone. In fact, most of them even forgot he was there to begin with," I tell him.

"Well, taking all of this into consideration, I think the evidence points toward him for both crimes. He was smart, I knew that even before I read the Erudite report on him. And now that I think of it, it did seem odd that he could afford so many things when we were both working the same job and had the same pay. I just figured at the time that it seemed like he was spending much since I spend almost none of my earnings. I didn't have to. I just bought food to have in the apartment when I wasn't up for the cafeteria or some clothes and toiletries, but other than that... you've seen my old apartment. But even so it felt like he had more points than others, but since we were constantly on edge around each other I thought that if I would complain to my superior he might think that I'm only doing it as payback for some shit Steven pulled on me," he explains.